FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99  
100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   >>  
ick mentions that in Persia there are many oxen entirely white, with small blunt horns and humps on their backs. They are very strong, and carry heavy burdens. When about to be loaded, they drop down on their knees like the Camel, and rise again when their burdens are properly fastened. THE BORNOU OX, which Col. Smith considers a distinct species, is likewise white, of a very large size, with hunched back, and very large horns, which are couched outwards and downwards, like those of the African Buffalo, with the tip forming a small half-spiral revolution. The corneous external coat is very soft, distinctly fibrous, and at the base not much thicker than a human nail; the osseous core full of vascular grooves, and inside very cellular, the pair scarcely weighing four pounds. The skin passes insensibly to the horny state, so that there is no exact demarcation where the one commences or the other ends. The dimension of a horn are:--length measured on the curve, three feet seven inches; circumference at base, two feet; circumference midway, one foot six inches; circumference two thirds up the horn, one foot; length in a straight line, from base to tip, one foot five inches and a half. The species has a small neck, and is the common domestic breed of Bornou, where the Buffalo is said to have small horns. Leguat, in his 'Voyages in 1720,' states that the oxen are of three sorts at the Cape of Good Hope, all of a large size, and very active; some have a hump on the back, others have the horns long and pendent, while others have them turned up and well shaped, as in English cattle. [Illustration: Zebu.--(_Var. delta._)] THE DOMESTIC OXEN OF THE HOTTENTOTS, CALLED BACKELEYS, BACKELEYERS, OR BAKELY-OSSE. _Bos ----?_ The following particulars relating to these Oxen are taken from the highly interesting work '_The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope_,' by Peter Kolben, who visited that colony in 1705, and remained there during a period of eight years. "The Hottentots have a sort of oxen they call Backeleyers, or fighting oxen; they use them in their wars, as some nations do elephants; of the taming and farming of which last creatures upon the like discipline the Hottentots as yet know nothing. They are of great use to them, too, in the government of their herds at pasture; for, upon a signal from their commanders, they will fetch in stragglers, and bring the herds within compass. They will likewise run
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99  
100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   >>  



Top keywords:

inches

 

circumference

 

species

 
length
 
likewise
 

Hottentots

 
Buffalo
 

burdens

 

states

 

BAKELY


DOMESTIC
 

CALLED

 

HOTTENTOTS

 

BACKELEYERS

 

BACKELEYS

 
cattle
 

active

 

shaped

 

English

 
Illustration

turned

 
pendent
 

discipline

 

creatures

 

farming

 

nations

 

elephants

 
taming
 

stragglers

 

compass


commanders

 

government

 

pasture

 

signal

 

fighting

 

Present

 

interesting

 

highly

 

relating

 

Kolben


Backeleyers

 

period

 

Voyages

 

visited

 

colony

 

remained

 
particulars
 

hunched

 

couched

 

outwards